A novel on-site SMR process integrated with a hollow fiber membrane module for efficient blue hydrogen production: Modeling, validation, and techno-economic analysis

Steam methane reforming (SMR) is widely used in the hydrogen production industry; however, a significant amount of CO₂ is released during this process. Several efforts have been made to produce low-CO₂ hydrogen (blue hydrogen) via SMR; however, the proposed solutions are not applicable to small-scale plants. Therefore, this study proposes an on-site SMR process combined with a hollow fiber membrane module (HFMM) for CO₂ capture in small-scale plants. First, mathematical models for the on-site SMR process and HFMMs were developed, and their accuracy was validated with real-world data. Second, we designed and implemented the SMR–HFMM model based on different operating conditions and gas compositions at three potential CO₂ capture locations (dry syngas, PSA tail gas, and flue gas). The CO₂ capture performances at these three locations were compared using five performance indicators: stage cut, separation factor, CO₂ recovery rate, permeate composition, and retentate composition. Finally, to evaluate the integrated processes for each CO₂ capture location, feasible ranges of the number of HFMMs and the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) were calculated. In the case of CO₂ captured in dry syngas, the number of HFMMs required to achieve a CO₂ purity of over 90% was calculated to be 10–25. Furthermore, despite additional HFMM installation, the LCOH was 0.8%–1.5% lower than that of the conventional on-site SMR process that is 7.07–7.13 USD/kgH₂. The proposed integrated SMR–HFMM process is a potential solution to the problem of CO₂ emissions in on-site SMR processes with a lower LCOH. Therefore, the findings of this study could be of significant importance in improving the environmental sustainability of hydrogen production in small-scale plants.